was reduced to a diminutive.

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muqriʾ said: “Whenever the Umayyads learned of a newborn whose name was ʿAlī, they would put him to death; when Rabāḥ heard of this he said, ‘Then he is ʿUlayy.’”

I say: ʿUlayy ibn Rabāḥ was born at the very beginning of ʿUthmān’s caliphate, so the alteration was probably made when he was still a youth. He later paid a formal visit to Muʿāwiyah and was counted among the Arab nobility.

He narrated from ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ—so far as I know, he was the last person to transmit from him—as well as from Abū Hurayrah, ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir, Abū Qatādah al-Anṣārī, Faḍālah ibn ʿUbayd, and several other Companions.

He lived to an old age, and the one who reported from him the most was his son, Mūsā ibn ʿUlayy.

Others who narrated from him include Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, Ḥumayd ibn Hāniʾ, Maʿrūf ibn Suwayd, and others.

He was one of the trustworthy narrators.

His son related that ʿUlayy said: “I was sitting behind my tutor when I heard him weeping. I asked, ‘What is the matter?’ He replied, ‘The Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān has been killed,’ and at that time I was in Syria.”

Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus states that his birth occurred in the year of Yarmūk.

He adds that he lost an eye on the day of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī (1) at sea while accompanying ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ, in the year 34 AH (2).

He also records that ʿUlayy enjoyed a special standing with ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān; it was he who escorted ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s daughter, Umm al-Banīn, to her cousin al-Walīd for marriage. Later, however, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s attitude toward him changed; he dismissed him and sent him on campaign to Ifrīqiyah, where he remained until he died.